Change of venue to access range of services in Prestonpans

From Monday 27 August 2018, local residents will have a change of venue to access a range of council services in Prestonpans.

Aldhammer House will solely deal with housing service enquiries while all other council service enquiries will be handled at Prestonpans Library.

Councillor Jim Goodfellow, Cabinet Spokesperson for Community Wellbeing, said: “Our local libraries increasingly provide a range of service to both local residents and visitors and we’ve found their opening hours, which can include evenings and weekends, are giving people more choices to contact the council.”

Aldhammer House as a Housing Service office will have dedicated staff on hand to provide help and advice on a range of housing issues including:

Change of circumstances related to council housing

General housing advice/options

Housing/garage applications

Housing allocations

Housing waiting list

Homeless enquiries

Mutual exchanges

Neighbour disputes

Garden Aid

The CAB surgeries, ‘The Pantry’ Foodbank, Councillor, MSP and MP surgeries will also continue to operate as normal from Aldhammer House. Capital Credit Union will continue to operate from Aldhammer House on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9am to 4pm.

Services which will be available at Prestonpans Library include:

Any payment

Benefits enquiries

Coastal car parking permits

Council tax enquiries

Freephone for accessing other council services

General enquiries

Library book, audio or DVD borrowing

Any other library service

Rent income enquiries

Universal Credit enquiries

Waste Service enquiries

Assistance with applying or renewing Blue Badges online

Assistance with applying for Railcards online

Assistance with going online ie setting up an email account, using the internet, using different mobile technology etc

Cllr Goodfellow added: “As more of our customers make use of online services and library staff are readily available to help people to go online, the council has reviewed its service provision and Aldhammer House will be developed to provide complementary services which give more support to the local community. Meanwhile, Prestonpans Library will be developed as a joint Library/Area Office as has been done in Dunbar, North Berwick and Tranent. This builds on the council’s work to strengthen our communities and support town centres such as Prestonpans with easy access to high-quality local facilities and services.”

Both Aldhammer House and Prestonpans Library will be closed on Friday 24 August for one day to allow some changes to be made in both of the buildings.